community, resilience and recovery

Overview of Beyond Bushfires Study:

Beyond Bushfires is a five-year study led by the University of Melbourne in partnership with a range of others, including community, government, emergency, and service agencies (see the list of partners). This study is exploring the medium to long term impacts of the Victorian 2009 bushfires on individuals and communities. The communities selected for this study (see list of communities) have a range of bushfire experiences from low impact to high impact. In order to understand these impacts, the study is collecting information in multiple ways including: surveys, interviews, focus groups and community visits (over the study period). The study will look at impacts on residents such as mental health, wellbeing and social relationships, within selected communities. There were just over 1,000 participants who completed surveys in 2012, who will be followed up again in 2014 and, depending on further funding, again in 2016. Over 2013 and 2014, in-depth interviews and focus groups took place to explore participants' experiences over time and attitudes to place and community. The research team is also carrying out community visits throughout the whole study to share information with community members and gain a better understanding of local conditions and issues. This will help to direct the way the study is conducted locally and will also help to ensure the findings are accurate and have relevance to the communities involved. For detailed information about the study methodology refer to the study protocol paper.